Two-and-a-half weeks ago I wrote a post urging Republicans to back away from a confrontation with President Obama over raising the debt ceiling and warning them against engaging in high-profile confrontations and brinksmanship except on the most favorable terrain.
I was therefore quite relieved when Republicans announced that this week they will propose extending the federal debt limit by three months while also requiring that both the House and the Senate pass a budget for the next fiscal year. If either chamber failed to adopt a budget by April 15, that chamber’s members would then have their congressional pay withheld.
As the Wall Street Journal put it,
The move represents the clearest sign yet Republicans are backing away from using the debt ceiling as the battlefield for their next budget fight with President Barack Obama. It’s also evidence of what top GOP leaders have been hinting in recent weeks: that the recurring cycle of fiscal crises isn’t helping the party politically, failing to give them substantive victories while sticking them with political blame… the concession indicates that GOP leaders would prefer to wage a budget fight with the White House on different and less fraught grounds: the automatic spending cuts that take effect on March 1 and a government-funding measure that expires weeks later.
This is the triumph of prudence and common sense. Republicans decided that Pickett’s Charge should remain a Civil War reference, not a political blueprint for the GOP.
It’s dawning on Republicans that it’s impossible for them to govern from the House. Nor are they in any position to extract large concessions from the president. It simply isn’t worthwhile for Republicans in this context to press for deep spending cuts and entitlement reforms when no such things will be forthcoming. To have pushed for a high-stakes showdown on raising the debt ceiling would have had very damaging political consequences for Republicans. They would have emerged from the battle looking ideological and irresponsible one the one hand (for forcing the fight), and weak and unprincipled on the other (for caving in).
During this political season, Republicans need to demonstrate patience and care. They need to avoid the traps being laid for them by the president. And they need to offer proposals (like the one House Republicans have) that are measured and realistic, politically intelligent, defensible and difficult to caricature.
Remember: President Obama’s aim is to portray House Republicans as extreme to the point of being nihilistic. His hope is to go to the country in 2014 and blame the GOP for standing in the way of reasonable proposals and progress. Republicans, on the other hand, need to point out that the House has been the responsible chamber, passing budgets on time and annually, while the Senate (controlled by Democrats) is acting in a wildly irresponsible and lawless fashion (for example, not passing a budget in nearly four years).
There is an intense battle over narratives taking place–and Republicans, in pulling back from an intense, high-stakes, down-to-the-wire battle with Obama over raising the debt ceiling, have avoided a huge setback.
This isn’t all they need to do, of course–but Do No Harm is not a bad starting point.
I'm sorry, what? What reality are you living in that you think the "narrative" won't simply be that the GOP caved yet again? They will never change the narrative when it's slanted against them before the fight even begins and no matter what the facts are. And they won't win fights against the White House if they simply run away from them.
"Republicans announced that this week they will propose extending the federal debt limit by three months while also requiring…." n n"Requiring"? And what if their "requirements" aren't met? Sounds like more blackmail to me.
so many battles to come, and Pickett's Charge is certainly the model to avoid. n nCertainly looks like ACA and Dodd-Frank and the EPA are going to destroy the Age of Obama. Just can not think of a military analogy for a nation being strangled to death by regulations. n n
LBJ bragging about the USAF not being able to bomb an outhouse in VN without his sign-off leaps to mind. n nWhat could possibly go wrong?
Republicans and conservatives must not listen to the more rabid talk show hosts. Not only are they amateurs in the world of practical politics, but they come across as mean and nasty to the vast middle group of Americans. Their impact upon rank and file conservatives has been very harmful.
i agree with the above comment. In retrospect the fight against Bush from the talk show hosts regarding immigration reform was one of the most suicidal political acts in memory. Something close to Bush's plan is going to pass this year. Think of what the political landscape would like now if it did pass under a Republican president. I dont think Romney wins the election but have been a lot closer. Instead the Republicans look and act of the part of the mean spirited and out of touch party
It's another day of the week with a "y" in it, so it's time for another of Commentary's "strategic" rationales for GOP preemptive surrender from the team that helped Romney get his assets handed to him during the election. All the GOP needs to do is to show "patience and care", gently point out, without scaring the horses, more in sorrow than in anger, that those other chaps across the aisle haven't been quite as responsible as their kinder, gentler, safe-to-invite-to-your Georgetown-salons-can-you-seriously-imagine-that-Palin-woman-as VP-for-goodness-sakes! learned friends in the GOP, and presto! the Dems and MSM but I repeat myself will see the eminent good sense of that observation and not say any mean things about the Stupid Party, thus effortlessly paving the way for all people of goodwill who respect sound, sensible, middle of the road governance to rally 'round the GOP, just as they did in Nov-…er, just as they are sure to do in November 2014 and 2016, yes, that's it. n nPatience and care. Don't scare the horses. That's the ticket. Just you wait. And wait. And wait. Lather, rinse, repeat.
What I liked best in this news was Boehner's comment that the House was going to proceed with matters "in regular order." If he and the GOP are able to stick to this — pass budgets, spending bills, and consider other legislation in the Constitutionally-prescribed manner in accordance with the normal procedures the House has used for more than 200 years — they have a ready answer, simple answer to complaints of obstrutionism: We did our job; let the Senate do its job. At the same time, it would be a good idea if the Senate Republicans keep repeating that they want these matters heard in the Senate and pledge not to filibuster them. n nCertainly, Obama, Reid and their media sycophants will continue to blame the GOP, but Boehner and the other faces of the GOP will be able to stand in front of the cameras and say, "Hey, we did x, y and z the way we are supposed to. It's the Democrat Senate's turn." n nI am not naive enough to believe that this will yield substantive results with which conservatives will be happy. It will, though, provide a renewed basis of party unity and message that will be critical in 2014 and beyond.